This site is maintained by the Academy of American Poets to "support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry." Here you'll find good information regarding the award-winning poet, a short biography, links to other exhibits on the web, and online versions of three of his poems ("The Cities Inside Us," "Day of the Refugios," and "Teodoro Luna's Two Kisses").

Arizona State University Research: Alberto Rios
http://researchmag.asu.edu/stories/alphabet.html

Visiting this page will give you access to a candid and revealing interview of Rios by ASU's Sheilah Britton. In this interview, aptly titled "Discovering the Alphabet of Life," the author talks at length with Britton about memory and his special alphabet of "words and images." Also highlighted in the discussion are Rios' ideas about how he got started as a poet, along with an analysis of his writing style. Biography

BIOGRAPHY
Alberto Rios (b. 1952) was born in Nogales, Arizona on the Mexican boarder, the son of a Guatemalan father and an English mother. He received a B.A. from the University of Arizona, briefly attended the law school, and eventually earned an M.F.A. in creative writing in 1979. His first poetry chapbook Elk Heads on the Wall was published in 1979. He published two more poetry collections and then the short-story collection The Iguana Killer: Twelve Stories of the Heart in 1984 which won the Western States Book Award. Rios has published eight books of poetry and fiction and the memoir Capriatada: a Nogales Memoir (1999). He was won many awards including the Walt Whitman award from the National Academy of American Poets (1981) and the Pushcart Prize for fiction (1986). Since 1982 he has been a professor of English at Arizona State University.